The Six Million Dollar Man is an American science fiction and action adventure television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors.

After being seriously injured in a NASA test flight crash, Austin is rebuilt (at considerable expense, hence the title of the series) with bionic implants that give him superhuman strength, speed and vision.

He followed it up with three sequels, Operation Nuke, High Crystal, and Cyborg IV, respectively about a black market in nuclear weapons, a Chariots of the Gods?

In March 1973, Cyborg was loosely adapted as a made-for-TV movie titled The Six Million Dollar Man starring Majors as Austin.

The film, which was nominated for a Hugo Award, modified Caidin's plot and notably made Austin a civilian astronaut rather than a colonel in the United States Air Force.

Absent were some of the standard features of the later series: the electronic sound effects, the slow-motion running, and the character of Oscar Goldman.

Instead, another character named Oliver Spencer, played by Darren McGavin, was Austin's supervisor, of an organization here called the Office of Strategic Operations, or "OSO".

The latter two movies, produced by Glen A. Larson, notably introduced a James Bond flavor to the series and reinstated Austin's status from the novels as an Air Force colonel; the hour-long series, produced by Harve Bennett, dispensed with the James Bond-gloss of the movies, and portrayed a more down-to-earth Austin.

")[citation needed] Use of deadly force by Austin - frequent in Caidin's novels and employed occasionally in the movies and early episodes - also decreased as the series progressed.

In 1975, a two-part episode titled "The Bionic Woman", written for television by Kenneth Johnson, introduced the lead character Jaime Sommers (played by Lindsay Wagner), a professional tennis player who rekindled an old romance with Austin, only to experience a parachuting accident that resulted in her being given bionic parts similar to Austin.

The character was very popular, however, and the following season it was revealed that she had survived, having been saved by an experimental cryogenic procedure, and she was given her own spin-off series, The Bionic Woman.

This spin-off ran until 1978 when both it and The Six Million Dollar Man were simultaneously cancelled, though the two series were on different networks when their final seasons aired.

[n 2] In the episode "The Deadly Replay", Oscar Goldman refers to the lifting body aircraft in which Austin crashed as the HL-10, stating, "We've rebuilt the HL-10."

In the 1987 TV film The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Austin refers to the craft as the "M3-F5", which was the name used for the aircraft that crashed in the original Cyborg novel.

In the opening sequence, a narrator (series producer Harve Bennett) identifies the protagonist, "Steve Austin, astronaut.

The opening and closing credits of the Wine, Women & War and The Solid Gold Kidnapping telefilms used a theme song written by Glen A. Larson,[6] and sung by Dusty Springfield, backed by Ron "Escalade" Piscina.

The first regular episode, "Population: Zero", introduced a new element to the opening sequence: a voiceover by Oscar Goldman stating the rationale behind creating a bionic man.

To maintain the show's plausibility, producer Kenneth Johnson set very specific limits on Steve Austin's abilities.

"[7] Austin's superhuman enhancements are: The implants have a major flaw in that extreme cold interferes with their functions and can disable them given sufficient exposure.

[citation needed] A British comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus P. Allan, drawn by Martin Asbury and printed in TV comic Look-In (around the time both TV series ended in 1978, it and Look-In's Bionic Woman strip merged into one title called Bionic Action).

As 2014 began, Dynamite discontinued its reboot titles and replaced them with a new ongoing series, The Six Million Dollar Man Season 6, continuing the adventures of Austin from the conclusion of the 1977–78 season and featuring not only the likeness of Lee Majors, but also other recurring actors such as Richard Anderson, as well as Darren McGavin as Oliver Spencer from the first TV movie.

Jaime Sommers was reintroduced from issue 3, with a spin-off comic series, The Bionic Woman Season 4, announced in June 2014 with a scheduled launch in the fall of 2014.

In October 2002, Trevor Sands was hired to write a new screenplay, titled The Six Billion Dollar Man,[12] but Dimension scrapped it when actor Jim Carrey pitched a comedic take on the material for him to star in, with Scot Armstrong as writer and Todd Phillips as director/co-writer.

[19] The film was moved to June 5, 2020, until Wonder Woman 1984 took over the release date,[20] and in April 2019, Travis Knight and Bill Dubuque replaced Szifron as director and writer.

These politicians were called "bionic" (biônicos), due to the series' popularity, and the association with the perceived extraordinary power and influence held by the appointed officials.

[citation needed] On July 21, 2010, Time Life (under license from Universal) announced the release of a complete series box set of The Six Million Dollar Man on DVD in Region 1 on November 23, 2010.

In addition, the set features extensive bonus features including interviews and featurettes with all major cast members and the set comes encased in collectible packaging that includes a sound chip, activated when the box is opened, that plays back part of the first season opening credits dialogue.

[citation needed] In November 2011, Universal Pictures began releasing individual season sets of the series on DVD, available in retail stores.

[35] Several episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man actually saw their North American DVD debut several weeks in advance of the box set, as Universal Home Video included the three "crossover" episodes that helped launch The Bionic Woman as bonuses on the October 19, 2010 DVD release of Season 1 of The Bionic Woman.

[36] On October 13, 2015, Universal Pictures released a retail version of The Six Million Dollar Man - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.